KPPC was a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
, United States, broadcasting on 1240
kHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...
between 1924 and 1996. Operating as a limited-hours, low-power station for most of its history, it carried primarily
Christian radio
Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk progra ...
programming and was originally owned by the
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Pasadena Presbyterian is the first church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formaliz ...
. Toward the end of its existence, it also aired ethnic programs. KPPC also spawned KPPC-FM 106.7, which was an influential
free form,
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
station in the late 1960s and early 1970s and went on to become
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock").
The stat ...
.
KPPC
ceased broadcasting in 1996 after Douglas Broadcasting acquired the station to eliminate interference with its
KYPA
KYPA (1230 AM ''AM 1230 JBC'') is a Korean-language radio station in Los Angeles, California. It is owned by Woori Media Group, LLC.
KYPA is one of four radio stations in the greater Los Angeles area that broadcast entirely in Korean; the other ...
at 1230 kHz.
History
Early history and church ownership
The
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Pasadena Presbyterian is the first church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formaliz ...
received the license to build KPPC in January 1925, but the station had already gone on air on December 25, 1924, with Christmas services from the church.
KPPC broadcast at 1310 kilohertz with 50 watts.
In 1927, it was joined on the frequency by another station, KELW, which held the distinction of being the first radio station built in the
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
. In
General Order 40
The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
, it was reallocated to 1200 kHz, shared with
San Bernardino
San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...
's KFWC. That station had moved to San Bernardino from
Upland in 1926, but relocated to
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
for a brief time. In January 1930, the station moved again to 1210, shared with the San Bernardino station, which had changed its call letters to KFXM the preceding year (it today is
KTIE
KTIE (590 AM, "AM 590 The Answer") is a commercial radio station licensed to San Bernardino, California. It is owned by the Salem Media Group, with studios on University Avenue in Riverside, California, and it airs a conservative talk radio fo ...
590). Further technical changes followed in 1931 when the station began using the antenna system of the former KPSN (the station of the ''
Pasadena Star-News
The ''Pasadena Star-News'' is a paid local daily newspaper for the greater Pasadena, California area. The Pasadena ''Star-News'' is a member of Southern California News Group (formerly the Los Angeles Newspaper Group), since 1996. It is also part ...
'', next door to the church), and in 1936 when it began transmitting with 100 watts.
NARBA
The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, es, Convenio Regional Norteamericano de Radiodifusión) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreem ...
reallocated KPPC and KFXM to 1240 kHz in 1941; the stations were just 10 kHz from
KGFJ (1230 AM), a situation that prevented significant facility improvements for decades.
On June 13, 1944, KPPC was authorized to broadcast at limited time: Sunday nights from 6pm to midnight and Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. These hours allowed it to broadcast Sunday services and the Wednesday prayer meeting and had already been in use for several years prior to formal authorization. It would eventually increase its broadcast hours to 23 hours a week by broadcasting 18 hours on Sundays and another five hours on Wednesdays.
A desire to broadcast additional programming, not possible on the 1240 AM frequency due to the technical constraints of additional stations, led the Pasadena Presbyterian Church to build an FM radio station,
KPPC-FM
KROQ-FM (106.7 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronou ...
106.7, which began broadcasts April 23, 1962.
Freeform years
In 1967, the Pasadena Presbyterian Church sold KPPC-AM-FM to Crosby-Avery Broadcasting for $310,000. The church had been attempting to sell the radio stations for a year; station manager Edgar Pierce said the church found commercial radio incompatible with the noncommercial nature of its other efforts.
The church retained the right to broadcast services over the stations, and the stations also did limited simulcasting. Crosby-Avery—owned by Leon Crosby, a general manager of San Francisco's
KMPX
KMPX (channel 29) is a television station licensed to Decatur, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of the Spanish-language Estrella TV network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Dallas-licensed ABC a ...
, a station that had just gone to a full-time rock format, and Lewis Avery, former partner in a national ad sales firm—turned KPPC-FM into an influential progressive rock station, using a format similar to KMPX.
A further ownership change came in 1969 when Crosby-Avery sold KPPC-AM-FM and KMPX to the National Science Network for $1.2 million. Crosby used the funds to buy a then-silent San Francisco television station,
KEMO-TV
KEMO-TV (channel 50) is a television station licensed to Fremont, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Estrella TV. Owned by HC2 Holdings, the station maintains studios on ...
. National Science Network's management of the KPPC stations was turbulent, capped by an October 1971 mass firing of the air staff.
Universal Broadcasting
In 1971, Ludwig W. Frohlich, the owner of National Science Network, died. Two years later, KPPC AM and FM were split; the FM station went to a group of investors known as the Burbank Broadcasting Company (already owners of 1500 AM), while KPPC, Inc., owned by Howard and Miriam Warshaw and Marvin Kosofsky, bought the AM frequency which had to be divested. The new owners integrated KPPC, still broadcasting on limited hours on Sundays and Wednesdays, into a growing chain of stations carrying religious programs, including
Arcadia, California
Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located about northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a series of adjacent parks consisting of th ...
's
KMAX-FM 107.1.
KPPC got a major broadcast time upgrade in 1985, operating at nighttime only Monday through Saturday and all day on Sundays. The changes also, however, allowed upgrades for the other stations around KPPC on the dial, which in the long run impaired the station's signal. By this time, KPPC was primarily airing programming in Spanish, though Hindi-language shows also were broadcast on the station, along with the Pasadena Presbyterian Church service, which had aired continuously since the church owned the station. In 1990, the ''Star-News'' newspaper ordered KPPC to move from the towers on its building, resulting in the construction of a new AM transmitter site.
Closure
In late 1995, the adjacent-channel station on 1230, KGFJ, was sold to Douglas Broadcasting, which relaunched it as KYPA "Personal Achievement Radio" in February 1996. Initially considering a simulcast of KYPA's programming on KPPC but instead deciding to buy the license to take it dark, Douglas acquired 1240 AM for $825,000 in December 1995. Though the church proposed a lease agreement to take back the 1240 frequency, concerns over future applications and the interference to the station on 1230 doomed the idea. On April 19, 1996, the station aired its final regular program, a look back at more than 71 years of broadcasting. However, the church discovered it had six more months on its longstanding contract to broadcast church services on the 1240 frequency, and with the license still nominally active, the station went on air for one hour a week for Pasadena Presbyterian Church's services, with the final broadcast coming September 1, 1996. (It also still identified as KPPC, even though Douglas had given the station new KXPA call letters, matching KYPA and its Personal Achievement programming, on May 1, 1996. It would later transfer those call letters to its station in
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has variously been characterized as a s ...
, in a move that left the KPPC license's final call letters officially KBLV.
)
Notes
References
{{LA Radio
1924 establishments in California
1996 disestablishments in California
Mass media in Pasadena, California
Radio stations established in 1924
Radio stations disestablished in 1996
Defunct radio stations in the United States
PPC
PPC may refer to:
Computing
* Personal programmable calculator, programmable calculators for personal use
* Pay-per-click, an internet advertising model
* PearPC, a PowerPC platform emulator
* Peercoin, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency
* Periphera ...
Defunct religious radio stations in the United States
PPC
PPC may refer to:
Computing
* Personal programmable calculator, programmable calculators for personal use
* Pay-per-click, an internet advertising model
* PearPC, a PowerPC platform emulator
* Peercoin, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency
* Periphera ...